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Monmouth, Merlin, and Courtly Love (Notes: 9)

A wooden statue of Geoffrey of Monmouth in modern Tintern, Monmouthshire.

1.Aside from the alleged deeds of
the Arthur-like figure, Jeffery of Monmouth’s History of the Kings of Britain
is the most vital cornerstone of the Arthurian tradition. It was a bestseller
throughout Europe with over 200 surviving manuscripts and ushered in the 12th
century explosion of Arthurian narratives.

2.Monmouth claims that Walter,
Archdeacon of Oxford had given him the book, which he had described as being
written in an ancient language, which he used as a base inspiration, and
alleged translation, of his history. Modern researchers have concluded that the
book has since been lost to time or perhaps existed as part of the oral tradition.
Other still yet think that Monmouth may have just claimed an originating text
in order to popularize and legitimate his narrative.

3.Regarding the genre of the
text, it should be considered as political instead of historical, religious, or
cultural. The text attempts to chart Britain’s legacy by associating its
founding with Brutus—great-grandson of Aeneis—and by extension it’s founding
with the city of Troy. Doing so, it revises history so as to posit Britain as a
great power.

4.It is important to recognize that
during this time it was considered a great skill to plagiarize and re-work
material into new formations. So it is either the case that Monmouth was a
great creative writer—as posited through his heavily plagiarized works—or he
truly was working from another text which has since been lost to time.

5.Evidence suggests that Monmouth
may have been from Brittany. His political goals seemed to have been to confirm
England’s descendants as glorious and honored, i.e., also Welsh and the Bretons
influence; secondly, his other goal was to glorify the then ruling Norman aristocracy.

6.In his dedication, for example,
he sought to win favor with both sides of the royal court in the then civil
conflict between siblings. An additional aspect of his deference to Norman
culture was to be found in the text itself which, in its translated prose, the
name of Merlin (Nyrddin), is similar to that of “shit.” So, Monmouth takes pains
to alter his name until we arrive at the contemporary spelling of Merlin as we
know it today.

7.An additional aspect of
Monmouth’s text is that it introduces us to Mordred’s betrayal of Arthur as
Arthur is adventuring on the continent. Additionally, Monmouth introduces the
idea that Arthur is to return someday after he has recovered from his battle
wounds: this is the first time such an idea was broached in what we may call
Arthurian literature. One last, and hugely important contribution that Monmouth
made to the Arthurian canon was the introduction of courtly love, or, of
knights questing in order to win curry with a princess or fair lady. This is an
invention of Monmouth as in previous Arthurian tales King Arthur lives not in a
castle, with a court as we think of it with finely clothed upper-class
intellectuals indulging themselves in food and wine, but in a hall, a more
tribal setting which are cruder and more pagan-oriented. So it is only in Monmouth’s
texts that the idea of a refined courtly romance is introduced and connected to
adventure and questing; what this serves is the foundation of what we know as
the Arthurian legend in modern times.

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Lately, I was browsing around online and found another handy resource for aspiring medievalists.

Enter, Western Michigan University's Medieval Institute!

The site has links to an extensive book shop, scholarly journals, as well as a free download. See below for links.

General listing: http://scholarworks.wmich.edu/medievalpress/
Index of titles available for purchase: http://www.wmich.edu/medievalpublications/all-titles
The 'Medieval Globe' book(s): http://scholarworks.wmich.edu/medieval_globe/ (Click on title(s) for free download)

Okay, that is all for now. Sometime soon I think that I would like to organize all of my resource links so that I, as well as you, have a concrete listing of reliable resources. Until then, we shall have to make due.